Former National Treasury director-general Dondo Mogajane has denied receiving bribes from jailed ex chairperson of VBS Mutual Bank Tshifhiwa Matodzi.
In a statement on Friday, Mogajane said he was one of the people who tried to stop Matodzi “in his tracks and prevented VBS Mutual Bank from pilfering SA any further”.
He labelled the allegations against him as “baseless”.
“I categorically deny that I have ever received corrupt monies or bribes. I proudly served with distinction, honesty, loyalty, and humility as a dedicated public servant for 23 years, the last five of which were as director-general of National Treasury. My record is clean in terms of how I ran my department and conducted myself as a member of National Treasury,” he said.
In his bombshell affidavit as part of his guilty plea agreement with the state, Matodzi said in August 2017, the bank received enquiries from municipalities after the National Treasury informed them to withdraw their investments from VBS Mutual Bank, since the Municipal Finance Management Act prohibits such investments with a mutual bank.
Matodzi said he met Mogajane through businessman Raliom Razwinane, owner of Gundos Wealth Solutions.
He said he met Mogajane five times — one of the meetings took place at Cedar Square in Fourways, another at VBS Mutual Bank offices in Rivonia, the third at Eagle Canyon and others at Treasury and the SA Reserve Bank.
“In all these five meetings it was never just me and Dondo but one or two other people. Present at the Pedro-Portia meeting [in Fourways] was myself, Dondo, Raliom, a gentleman by the name of Chuma and a lady whose name I would later come to know as Dr Mkhize,” said in a statement.
“While the discussion was still on this National Treasury letter to the municipalities, Raliom then softly whispered to me regarding our earlier agreement that I should pay an amount of R1m to Dondo. That is when Raliom shared a whisper with Dondo and then Dondo said a million rand is fine, nodding his head,” the affidavit reads. In short, the purpose of this meeting was none other than to confirm the payment of R1m and the bank account where it was to be made.”
Mogajane confirmed he met with Matodzi several times during his tenure.
He said the meetings followed a circular issued by National Treasury in August 2017 warning municipalities that deposits made at a mutual bank contravened municipal finance regulations, and were not allowed.
He said Matodzi wanted to have the circular withdrawn.
“But each time, I gave him the same answer, refusing to withdraw the circular, and refusing his requests to allow VBS Mutual Bank to conduct any further investment deals with municipalities,” Mogajane said.
He said Matodzi’s affidavit conveniently excludes the many meetings held in the presence of other people, including with VBS Mutual Bank management, the Public Investment Corporation as a VBS Mutual Bank shareholder, the SA Reserve Bank and other National Treasury representatives.
He said minutes of these meetings show they made it very clear that legally the bank was not allowed to continue conducting investment deals or receiving deposits from municipalities.
“In fact, my colleagues and I became so alarmed by the actions of VBS Bank that I filed an answering affidavit against it in November 2017, wherein I confirmed National Treasury’s stance against the intentions of VBS Mutual Bank in continuing to take municipal deposits. Later, I made another statement with the Hawks in support of their investigation into the bank.”
Mogajane said during discussions in 2017 and early 2018, they were not aware that the bank was a “scam, and simply viewed these as engagements with a black-owned bank”.
He also said that he would not be “trialed by corrupt individuals or those driving their own agendas, and I will not allow anyone to tarnish my name”.
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